hAP ax3 at RouterOS License 6 is perfect with current Comcast 1.2G download service. Sonic.com is coming to my street with symmetric 10G fiber service.
RB5009 at RouterOS License 6 matches a Sonic future well.
I don’t understand the product design where better RB5009 is licensed at lower level whereas the lesser hAP ax3 is licenced at a higher level.
The table in section “License Levels” outlines differences between different levels. IMO differences between Level 5 and Level 6 are mostly relevant for WISP (back bone nodes), but not in the case you’re mentioning (i.e. WAN speed increase from 1Gbps to 10Gbps).
Not to be confused with license levels for CHR (P1, P10, P-unilimited, …) where indeed there are differences in licensed throughput.
So the problem is hAP ax3 having L6 License, there is definitely no way to keep everyone happy
i think L6 License on hAp ax3 is a very exceptional case, where you can obtain a L6 License on a small device, for testing or special scenarios where that machine will not serve a lot of traffic.
Something like a L6 Lite license, A big license Limited by being on a small device
IMO hAP ax3 is a sweet spot and I’m very pleased with mine.
hAP ax3 just lacks dual SFP+ ports to be “perfect”.
RB5009 L6 with one SFP+ port is good enough.
As @mkx notes, there are no speed limits in hardware licensing. So switch to fiber shouldn’t be a problem. There are only CPU/switch-chip/port limitations at higher speeds, that more likely be the bottleneck. Unless you have acting as a VPN server for hundreds of users, the license level shouldn’t matter. And serving 200+ [CPU-driven] VPN sessions might be tough on RB5009. WG and ZT aren’t even include in the license limits, so if you use those there is no enforced limit beyond the kernel/CPU.
I’m not sure even if these are enforced in V7, I haven’t tested it… but also haven’t seen any “OMG I hit a license limit” posts in the forum either.
Estimated guess:
Buy the required license (which means forking out $250), you should get a .key file which you need to store somewhere on your computer.
And then from Winbox - System / License / import key, select earlier saved license file.
If you want to be 100% sure, ask sales@mikrotik.com, they should know how (IF it can be done on a regular device).
AFAIK you cannot upgrade the level. There is some mechanism using an account at www.mikrotik.com to request keys, but never used and think it applies to X86 keys.
I just know the docs start with (emphasis added) and never see some licensing error on hardware Mikrotiks:
MikroTik hardware routers that run RouterOS come preinstalled with a RouterOS license, if you have purchased a RouterOS based device, > nothing must be done regarding the license> .
Now CHR license is absolutely enforced and that does have speed limits, but that’s a different scheme.
I just don’t think you’re not missing out on anything with L4 – there are not “extra” things that come with a higher license. Assuming the levels are X86 are same for hardware (which is an assumption) — unless >200 OpenVPN/PPPoE/L2TP/PPTP sessions — there really is no issue.
There is no doubt some kernel limits, outside of licensing, that may also come into play too, even with a higher license. So I suspect the license level somewhat reflects the hardware capabilities e.g. 200 OpenVPN on RB5009 does sound like “too many” to be usable.
If you’re really concerned, I’d file a support request at help.mikrotik.com and ask them.
Level can be upgraded, it simply cannot be upgraded with discount, but can be purchased for full price.
Can you clarify (OP) which Level 6 features you need in this device, that are not present in Level 5?
User manager session count (50 for level 5) is a limitation when using “EAP/Enterprise wifi security”
If it is a network with multiple AP, and just one User Manager for all, the 50 (actually you only get 49) is limiting.
This means 48 wifi devices (you need another extra session for roaming) that can connect in your network. If people have laptop,smartphone, smartwatch,tablet … that is just 12 people.
In my cases just 2 to 3 families on holiday. These devices tend to stay connected when in range.
Either FreeRADIUS, DaloRADIUS or some other RADIUS needs to be used. (Never seen such a limitation on specific Draytek or Synology implementations)
That session count for wifi “Enterprise” logon with Mikrotik , is rather unrealistic.
Solved today with the hAP ax3 for User Manager. RB1100AH would also work, CCR are rather expensive.
What I consider a much bigger issue than RB5009 coming with a L5 license is MikroTik’s DynaDish series coming with an L3 license. It’s MikroTik’s most expensive outdoor wireless product with a price tag of $200 but we can’t connect 2 clients to it until we buy a separate L4 license? That’s ridiculous. Then we have >200 OmniTIK 5 devices with L5 licenses we have to throw away because they have only 32MB of RAM and are basically obsolete at this point, but you can’t transfer the license from one device to another…
Well, now we know why that doesn’t happen very often. Not a good value IMO.
I never said I need a particular feature. I stated my goal in post #9 above: http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/rb5009-routeros-license-6/169382/1
Thank you; you answered that question in your first sentence. Now I know I can upgrade a hardware device license and I know the cost.
The motivator behind the question is hAP ax3 at L6 is fantastic which would be a great disappointment if downgraded.
hAP ax3 and RB5009 are Qualcomm and Marvell devices respective with very similar core CPU specifications.
The RB5009 has far better I/O capability at a logical higher price but at lower L5 where IMO L6 is a better fit. TL;DR hAP ax3 at L6 has created an expectation that better hardware should also be L6 or better.
Yeah that a cheaper home unit has a “higher” license is kinda strange. I’ve just never run into these limits since they aren’t not speed related (and don’t use user-manager/hotspot/run VPN server)
i disagree, the main diferentiator between L5 and L6 is User manager active sessions Limit, Which in L5 is 50, in L6 is Unlimited
The limit of 500 Active tunnels on L5 commonly is enough to be within limits of feasible hardware capacity in production scenarios for Tier of devices Like RB4011 and RB5009